Taylor Griffin's semi-regular and occasionally interesting observations on the economy, public relations, and politics.

Media

March 31, 2009

Mark McKinnon, writing for the Daily Beast, gives voice to moderates everywhere who feel that the media discourse is increasingly rewarding political conflict over nuanced, informed debate.

This is where there is a huge disconnect between Washington and the
rest of the country. Most people I know are not highly partisan. Most
are fairly centrist, a little left or a little right, but not on the
fringe. And increasingly, they don’t feel like they have a
representative voice anymore.

There just isn’t a lot of nuance or middle ground in the blogosphere, on talk radio, or cable TV. You are a shirt or a skin.

For a while the media accused incumbent presidential administrations
of running permanent campaigns. But, now it’s the media that can’t put
down the crack pipe of political conflict because it drives ratings.